Thursday, February 3, 2011

Good Fortune {Chinese New Year}

Well the new year is fast approaching! What?! No I'm not confused...Chinese New Year sillies.
February 3rd is Chinese New Year and all this past week I've been thinking of ways to celebrate.
So if you haven't started on those New Year's resolutions, here's your chance to START again :)
Yay for second chances!

First of all I thought that having a family night to celebrate the Chinese New Year would be a fun thing to do.

I was thinking of some baking to do with the kids and I came up with Fortune Cookies! :D
Now, who doesn't like fortune cookies, eh?
Then I thought how cute would it be that we make some fortune cookies for Valentine's Day {2 birds 1 stone and all that jazz}

First, a little background on fortune cookies. Something I didn't know {but somehow suspected}
The fortune cookie, like chop suey, is a U.S. invention that is often thought to be from another country. Fortune cookies actually came from Los Angeles where Canton-native David Jung, a baker and restauranteur, began making cookies with thin slips of paper inside sometime around 1920. Jung founded the Hong Kong Noodle Company, which was producing more than 3,000 cookies an hour in the 1920s.

So here's a fortune cookie recipe I found:
You will need to type up some fortunes by writing messages on about 20 strips of paper.

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Here's an important tip:
Make only 2 or 3 cookies at a time, because the cookies become stiff very quickly and when cooled are too brittle to bend into their crescent shape.

You will need:
muffin pan
thin edged cup or glass
You can get some white cotton gloves to handle the hot cookies {I found some white "Shower" gloves at walmart for $3}
8 oz flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
4 ounces sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 egg whites
4 oz. vegetable oil
1 teaspoon water
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 300 F degrees
In large bowl, sift together the flour, cornstarch, sugar and salt. Stir in the oil, egg whites, water and vanilla. On a well greased baking sheet, roll a very thin 4 inch circle of dough and bake for 15 minutes or until the outer edges are golden brown but the center is light colored.
Flip it out onto your hand and quickly place the strip of paper in the middle, fold the cookie over and take the cookie and bend it over the rim of the glass/cup to make the crescent shape. Quickly put it into the muffin tin to hold its shape.
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Well wouldn't it be great if  I told you that these turned out JUST.RIGHT. Well...they didn't. After three different times, with two different recipes, I even watered one down. Nada. Zilch. YUCK~
I still posted the recipe in case one of you brave souls can make it work. I finally gave in and just BOUGHT THE DARN THINGS!
So here's the rest of my tutorial. With the perfectly baked goodies :D {found at WalMart Asian Food section}
They even have the fortunes built in. How convenient, eh?
So I took each one and dipped them in chocolate then immediately shook some sprinkles on them. I also used some "Icing Writer" to decorate them.
Then each one will go into one of these little chinese take out boxes (dollar tree has them as a package of 5 for $1) and when I tie a pretty ribbon around them, they will be perfect for gift giving.







My little guy will pass out fortune cookies as his Valentine's this year. Pretty snazzy huh?
Now where's that Chinese Take Out menu?

xīn nián kuài lè
新年快樂


Linking up to the following Valentine's Parties:
http://www.atthepicketfence.com/
http://www.houseofhepworths.com/
http://www.somewhatsimple.com/
http://www.tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com/
Under the Table and Dreaming
Metamorphosis Monday
http://littleeme.blogspot.com/

Would you like to comment?

  1. You are so funny! While I was reading this I thought, "Wow! She made fortune cookies!" I absolutely loved your honesty about the whole process. And I especially loved the great idea of jazzing up store bought cookies. Those children in Aaron's class are very lucky.

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  2. So funny! I love hearing the "whole" story and think that the turned out just great! Thanks so much for sharing this at Inspiration Friday this week!
    Vanessa

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  3. i love fortune cookies! these look awesome! :)

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